Wavelength selective light cross connect device

Abstract

A wavelength selective light cross connect device 1A is configured of a route selector 10A including route selection elements 11-1 to 11-N, wavelength selector 20A, route selector 40A including route selection elements 41-1 to 41-M and controller 50A. The route selection elements 11-1 to 11-N select routes for WDM signals of N channels inputted to input routes Rin1 to RinN, and directs the WDM signals to the wavelength selector 20A. The wavelength selector 20A performs a selection operation to (N×M) WDM signals according to their wavelength, and outputs the signals. Wavelength selection elements 40-1 to 40-M receives different outputs obtained from the respective route selection elements via the wavelength selector 20A, selects routes and outputs the signals from output routes Rout1 to RoutM.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to a wavelength selective light cross connect device having a plurality of input and output routes provided at an optical node corresponding to a branch point in an optical network in an optical telecommunications field.[0003]2. Discussion of the Related Art[0004]A wavelength division multiplexing optical communication technique is applied to a high-speed and large-capacity optical network that supports today's advanced information-telecommunication society. A ROADM (Reconfigurable Optical Add Drop Multiplexer) device having a reconfigurable add-drop function has been introduced to the optical node corresponding to the branch point in the optical network. To realize the ROADM device, a wavelength selective switch (also referred to as WSS) for switching a desired wavelength to a desired direction has received attention. At present, the wavelength selective switch having the number of input r...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]In consideration of such conventional problems, the present invention intends to achieve a compact mounting area and improve the transmission reliability without using a conventional wavelength selective switch and movable parts such as MEMS.

[0022]As described above in detail, according to the present invention, since the wavelength cross connect device is configured as a unit and a plurality of wavelength selective switches are not used, the switch becomes compact, resulting in a small mounting area and reliability is improved. Further, it is possible to provide a multiple input / output wavelength selective cross connect device that is hard to be affected by external perturbations such as vibrations and shocks without using the movable parts such as MEMS.

Problems solved by technology

Further, there is a disadvantage that the switches are essentially vulnerable to external perturbations such as vibrations and shocks since a mirror such as MEMS is mechanically driven.

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